When fingerprints are deposited on surfaces of articles, the articles are aesthetically deteriorated. For example, when fingerprints are deposited on surfaces of pianos, high quality furniture, household electric appliances, or automobile interior and exterior parts, they are aesthetically deteriorated and become unseemly.
Additionally, when fingerprints are deposited on surfaces of articles, the articles are deteriorated in optical properties (e.g., visibility). For example, touch panels of information displays (e.g., smartphones or tablet PCs) that are equipped with the touch panels as user interfaces (UI) have an advantage of capable of being intuitively operated by directly touching display screens with fingers. However, when fingerprints are deposited on the touch panels, the screen is deteriorated in visibility.
The surface of articles are required to have fingerprint resistance in which fingerprints are less likely to be deposited on the surfaces or are inconscicuous even when the fingerprints are deposited on the surface.
In view of this, for example, there have been proposed, as the display screens (e.g., touch panels), antifouling layers of which the outermost surfaces are formed of fluorine compounds or silicone compounds (see, for example, Japanese Patent (JP-B) No. 4666667). In this proposed technique, formation of water- and oil-repellent surfaces weaken adhesive force of oil components contained in the fingerprints, which allows the fingerprints to be easily wiped-off with, for example, a cloth.
There have also been proposed water-repellent, lipophilic surfaces which do not repel oil components (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2010-128363). In this proposed technique, oil components contained in fingerprints deposited on the surfaces spread and thus do not form liquid droplets, which allows the fingerprints to be inconspicuous.
There have also been proposed optical elements having microstructured surfaces in order to allow the fingerprints to be easily wiped-off (see, for example, JP-A No. 2012-163723).
Because the articles are used for various applications under various environments, laminates which are attached onto surfaces of the articles to serve as antifouling layers are required to have good long-term fingerprint resistance. In addition to the fingerprint resistance, the laminates are also required to have a pleasant feel to the touch of users.
However, these conventionally proposed techniques are unsatisfactory in terms of the long-term fingerprint resistance and the pleasant feel in use, so that they have a room for improvement.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a lipophilic laminate having excellent fingerprint resistance even for long-term use and achieving a pleasant feel to the touch for users; a method for producing the lipophilic laminate; and an article using the lipophilic laminate.